After the U.S. Supreme Court just allowed the Census Bureau to cut short its once-every-decade vote counting, Utahns now have through Thursday for a final chance to participate.
Meanwhile, the Census Bureau reports that 99.9% of Utah households have been enumerated so far.
It reports that 70.8% of those Utah households self-reported online, by phone or by sending in a paper questionnaire. Another 29.1% were enumerated by census workers by knocking on doors, or even talking to neighbors of those who had failed to self-respond.
The Census Bureau reports that only three states have less than a 99.9% rate of enumeration now: Louisiana (98.3%), Mississippi (99.4%), and South Dakota (99.8%).
The ageny says the following options are available for those who still want to respond:
• Internet self-response will be available across the nation through 8 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time on Friday. That is available by visiting 2020Census.gov.
• Phone response is also available through Thursday by calling 844-330-2020.
• Paper responses must be postmarked by Thursday.
• Census workers will continue knocking on doors through the end of the day on Thursday.
Earlier, the Census Bureau had been ordered by courts to continue counting through Oct. 31. However, on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can end census field operations early, in a blow to groups that contended efforts through the end of the month were critical to ensure minorities are properly counted in tough-to-enumerate areas.
The Trump administration argued that the head count needed to end immediately to give the bureau time to meet a year-end deadline for it to provide Congress with figures used to decide the states' congressional seats — a process known as apportionment.
Utah is expected to retain the same number of four seats that it currently has in the U.S. House.
